Curran takes five in Surrey victory

Tom Curran continued his tremendous all-round game as Surrey claimed a 178-run win against Leicestershire in the LV=CC game at Grace Road.

Charlie Shreck (23-3-67-4) and Ben Raine (20-4-74-3) each claimed two wickets in the morning session as Surrey were dismissed for 284 to leave Leicestershire a victory target of 356.

Early wickets put paid to those hopes as Curran took 5-53 to go with his first innings exploits, where he scored a vital 60 and claimed 4-39. Niall O’Brien top-scored with 54 from 66 balls.

Surrey started day three on 217-6 with a lead of 288 and James Burke (27) was leg before to Shreck after collecting a brace of boundaries.

The seamer then unsettled Curran (1) with a couple of bouncers, the second of which was hit down Jigar Naik’s throat at deep square leg.

Shreck went perilously close to his second five-for in as many matches as Davies edged to the left of O’Brien, the stumper just failing to hang on to a one-handed diving effort.

The left-hander went on to record a more than useful unbeaten 47, and Chris Tremlett (19) and Matt Dunn (9) offering useful late order support before being bowled and caught behind off Raine respectively.

That left County an awkward 35 minutes before lunch and there was the worst possible start as Dunn trapped Matthew Boyce leg before with the first ball of the innings.

Robson was dropped in the slips off Tremlett (11-3-27-1) in the next over but responded in some style, driving Dunn (8-2-34-1) through mid-on before cutting Curran to the fence in the lunch over.

Robson and Eckersley played well to take the team to the interval on 26-1 from nine overs but Leicestershire suffered three big blows in the space of the first two overs after the break.

Tremlett bowled Robson (14) while Curran had Mark Cosgrove (5) caught at slip by Ben Foakes off the shoulder of the bat before pinning Andrea Agathangelou (0) lbw.

The seamer almost had a third scalp when O’Brien edged but Wilson couldn’t hold on after diving to his left. O’Brien then clipped a couple of fours off his pads as a stand of 45 developed with Eckersley.

Curran ended Eckersley’s stay after an intelligent period of bowling. The bowler had previously gone past the outside edge of Eckersley (32) a couple of times through swing, and then clipped the stumps with one that held its line.

O’Brien continued to play in a positive but controlled manner as he formed another alliance with Raine, who clipped a four through mid-wicket to register the 50 partnership. The ‘keeper went on to record a run a ball 50 at that included eight fours, scored all around the wicket.

A beautiful straight drive for Raine found the fence before a similar stroke brought a single to record the 150, but a wicket fell without further addition. Ansari (6-3-12-1) was into his third over when he angled one across O’Brien from around the wicket and the ‘keeper nicked to Ireland teammate Wilson.

As so often as happened during this game, one wicket brought a cluster. Curran completed his five-wicket haul as Taylor (0) edged behind and McKay (6) hooked to Tremlett at long leg.

Leicestershire went to tea on 162-8 and fifteen more runs were added before Burke (7-0-35-2) finished the game in consecutive deliveries, trapping Raine (28) and Shreck (0) lbw. Naik was left unbeaten on 14.

County’s next game is in the NatWest T20 Blast against Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Grace Road on Friday evening (5.30pm) before the team travel to Lancashire for the LV=CC match on Sunday.